First stretched Jaguar E-Type to be shown at London awards ceremony

Jaguar has unveiled what is considered as the first stretched E-Type in the world and will showcase it at a major automotive awards ceremony in London this week. Produced in 1968, a Jaguar E-Type series 1 4.2 roadster was stretched by four-and-a-half inches on a major restoration work by Classic Motor Cars Limited of Bridgnorth (CMC).

The company’s managing director, Nick Goldthorp, remarked that the Jaguar E-Type series 1 4.2 roadster is “phenomenal to drive.” He said that this car is the E-Type that Jaguar Cars should have built as its extra space “makes all the difference and actually alters the whole attitude of the car.”

During the restoration work, the car’s owner, Paul Branstad, requested a trailer to be built, since he intends to travel widely. CMC built the trailer from two E-Type rear ends joined together and connected the trailer via a removable tow hitch that locks into position through the reversing light aperture.

The reversing light hides the hitch mechanism when the trailer is not in use. Branstad named his E-Type “the Kaizen” taken from one of Toyota’s founding principles that means “understand the imperative to make continuous improvements and then get to work.” Branstad remarked that the car was named so since he thought that the original Jaguar designer, Malcolm Sayer, would have approved of what he wanted to do with it while preserving its essence.”

He remarked that the stretched E-Type he conceived slots between the Series I and the subsequent vehicles produced after the merger and formation of British Leyland. Goldthorp noted that the project was something that CMC has never done before – a car having the interior leg room of a Series 3 V12 E-Type but the aesthetics of a Series 1 car.